The Battle of Fort Benning
by CreepyReaper
Summary: The military battles the infected. One shot. Formerly called A Soldier's Story. Oneshot.


I-Day

Corporal Marcus Reed was tossing in his sleep when he heard a loud knock on his door. He looked over at the alarm clock on his side table. It read 6:15, fifteen minutes before he had to get up and ready to report to Fort Benning at nine. He needed twenty minutes to drive because he lived in a neighborhood off the base. He threw his sheets off him and swung his legs around to the ground. He put on a pair of sweats and went to answer the door. The pounding got louder, he heard someone yell help, and it suddenly stopped.

Concerned, he ran to the front door and unlocked it deadbolt. When he pulled it open he almost gagged. On his front step a man was tearing into his neighbor, Henry Danning. Mr. Danning was almost sixty and had been banker for about fifteen years.

He ran forward and ripped the man off his neighbor's back and threw him on his lawn. He reached down to his neighbor to help only to see half his neck had been ripped away. He took a knee and felt for a pulse, only to find none. He looked over at the man on his lawn who was just now getting up.

Cpl Reed looked on in amazement as the figure revealed its face. He had short brown hair and was about five feet tall with light skin. However, it was missing its entire right hand, jagged pieces of bone protruding from its stub. It quickly sprinted towards him, stumbling.

As the thing approached Cpl Reed grabbed it by the shoulders and kicked out its right foot, throwing it into the bushes. He ran inside to grab his gun, barely making it past the front door before he heard it coming after him. He sprinted back to his bead and pulled out his Beretta.

He turned and fired a double-tap into the monster's chest as it rounded the corner into his bedroom. It stumbled backward and impacted his wall with a thud. However, as Corporal Reed lowered his gun, the man straightened and ran at him again.

Reed fired another three shots into its chest before finally putting a round through its forehead when it reached the end of his bed. It toppled over, blood and brain matter spilling over his carpet and wall. He just sat there for a moment, stunned that he had had to kill someone.

This wasn't the first time he'd killed someone, he'd done a tour in Afghanistan with the rest of the 3rd Ranger battalion and had fought in a lot of skirmishes, that wasn't at the foot of his bed in Georgia. He finally picked up his phone and called 911, but got a busy signal.

He decided he needed to get dressed. He grabbed a pair of ACU pants and shirt and pulled on his combat boots. He hesitated before finally deciding to grab his gun before heading out. Outside his door, instead of the normal serene picture that was his neighborhood, he saw massive columns of smoke rising in every direction. Gunfire was echoing in the distance and he could hear police sirens. His neighbors were spilling out of their houses, running to their cars. Some of them were still in bathrobes or pajamas.

He heard the sound of a Beretta across the street and ran to a two story yellow house that belonged to a mailman who had just moved in and who's name Corporal Reed still didn't know. He peered inside to see a man in ACU clothing firing into a living room at an unseen target. Suddenly a small figure lunged out of the the room and onto the man, sending him sprawling onto his back as he tried to wrestle it off.

He ran inside, weary of more hostiles and ripped the figure off the other man. He saw the figure was a young girl in her late teens who was missing half her chin. Without thinking he brought up his gun and put a bulled between her eyes. She went limp and fell to the floor. He looked down at the man to see it was Corporal Jeremy Fischer, another Army Ranger. Fischer had been a sharpshooter during his tour and had gotten his platoon out of an ambush outside Kabul a few weeks after they had arrived.

He offered a hand and Fischer took it, pulling himself to is feet. "Thanks, Mark. Do you know what the hell is going on? I wake up this morning and hear one of these things-" he said, motioning at the corpse, "scratching at my back door. I unloaded half a clip into its chest before putting a 9mm through its forehead."

Corporal Reed shrugged. "I don't know either. I just found one clawing at my door eating Henry. It was fucking eating him. It ripped his throat out." Before Corporal Fischer could respond, the two soldiers heard rustling behind them. They turned around, guns up.

Suddenly a woman ran into the house, screaming 'Help!' Behind her a large, muscular black man was running. When it tried to make the tight turn it slipped, its feet sliding out from under it. Before it could get to its feet the two soldiers each planted a slug into its brain when they saw its entire left arm was gone below the shoulder.

They looked to the woman who was now paused at the top of the stairs, wondering whether or not the soldiers were among the cannibalistic monsters. They looked up at her and Marcus said, "Its okay, we're not with them." She hesitated before nodding and walking down the stairs.

"Mark, we need to report to Fort Benning, now." Fischer said. "There's more soldiers and guns there." Marcus nodded and moved back to the door, looking around for more hostiles.

"Okay, Jeremy, Ms-" "Kathleen" "right, Kathleen, we're going to make a break for my truck. Its the black Dodge Ram. I'm going to go first, then Kathleen. Jeremy, take up rear guard. Ready?" he asked.

The two nodded. "Okay, GO!" As he said that he took off at a fast run, still keeping an eye out for enemies as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. He heard the other two running behind him. He reached his truck and unlocked the doors, waiting for Fischer and Kathleen to arrive before getting in himself. They jumped in the truck and closed the doors as he started it.

When he hit the gas petal the truck jumped forward.

The scene on the road was worse than their neighborhood. Many homes were on fire. Others had broken windows or doors. One even had a corpse in its yard.

"My god, what the hell is going on?" Kathleen said out loud. After miles and miles of carnage, they finally arrived at the gates of Fort Benning. The guards were unusually well armed. They had body armor and M4s. They had also apparently brought up a machine gun to reinforce their position.

They brought their weapons up and pointed them at the truck. "Get out of the vehicle with your hands up!" one of them shouted. They all got out and Marcus said, "I'm Corporal Marcus Reed, 3rd battalion, 75th Rangers. This is Corporal Jeremy Fischer, same." the soldiers still didn't lower their weapons and three moved to frisk each of them.

They pulled the guns from their pants and patted them down. Cpl Reed also noticed the soldiers patting them were wearing latex gloves. After frisking them, they seemed satisfied and one of the men said, "They're clean, sir."

The man who appeared to be in charge nodded and said, "Alright, you guys can pass. Rangers report to the armory. Miss, you can report to the barracks. There's a civilian collection point there." The soldiers nodded and they all got back in the vehicle. They dropped off Kathleen at the barracks and continued to the armory. Reed parked his truck and they headed inside.

The armory was a swarm of activity. Men were donning body armor and handing out weapons. As soon as they entered a sergeant with full armor and an M4A1 hanging from its strap. You two men, report over there to Lieutenant Holiday. He'll brief you on what's going on and then you'll pull gear from over there." As he said this he motioned to where about fifteen men were gathered and where weapons ad ammunition were being handed out.

"Do you know what the hell's going on?" Fischer asked. The sergeant just said, "Just go over to Lieutenant Holiday, he'll explain what's going on." With that he walked off to help with equipment distribution.

Unsatisfied they did as told and joined the other soldiers.

"Okay everybody, now I know this has been a crazy morning but its about to get crazier. I'm sure you've all had contact with the infected by now, right?" All the soldiers nodded their heads. "Good, then you know what to expect. We're going to be forming a Clean and Sweep team. We're going to search for survivors and eliminate any infected we encounter. When you encounter the infected you are to avoid their mouths or any open wounds they have. If someone gets any infected bodily fluids in them, you need to tie them with zip-strips immediately. They are at risk of becoming infected with whatever the hell this is. Last note, only aim for the heads. Put a round anywhere else, it'll slow them down, but they'll get up. Brain only. We are designated CST Bravo. Any questions?"

Marcus immediately responded. "Sir, where did this thing come from?" The Lieutenant shook his head. "I don't know. All I know is this thing is all across the country. There are reports of similar outbreaks in Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, and a lot of other places. This thing is spreading like wildfire. National Guard's been mobilized. Apparently this is a larger outbreak so the 101st is sending over a battalion to assist. Any other questions?"

No one spoke so the Lieutenant continued. Alright, grab armor and weapons. No helmets, they're not gonna do any good. Hooah." The soldiers replied, "Hooah!" and began dispersing, heading for the weapon and armor stations. Fischer and Reed moved to get armor first. As they put on the Kevlar vests they began talking.

"California and New York? How the hell do they think they can contain this?" Fischer said. Reed just shook his head. "One bullet at a time, I guess." The both grabbed an M4A1 and ammunition for their rifles and their personal Berettas. Fischer also grabbed an M21, the marksman version of the M14. They also grabbed a canteen each.

After about five minutes Lieutenant Holiday yelled, "CST Bravo, outside, now!" Over a dozen men began running to the door. It was then Cpl Reed heard the distinctive sound of M4 fire. As he and fourteen other men exited the building, they saw what was going on.

Several MPs were shooting at a crowd who were approaching at a run. All of the crowd were sporting at least some kind of wound that had dark blood surrounding it. A few wore military uniforms. The soldiers ran to the barricade the MPs had formed with three Humvees. They also began firing, precision shots heading out on straight lines to infected brains.

However, the crowd was large, and seemingly endless. After unloading seven magazines and loading his eighth, Reed realized he would run out of ammunition before the crowd ran out of numbers. He began retreating, the other soldiers doing likewise. He ran inside the armory, Cpl Fischer close behind him.

"What are we doing, Mark?" Cpl Reed grabbed a crate of 5.56mm ammunition and handed it to Fischer. On top of that he put another box of 5.56mm and a box of 7.62mm ammunition. He himself grabbed three crates of MREs. He jogged out to the back door where several parked humvees were parked.

He put his crates in the trunk of one, allowing Fischer to put his in as well before they went back for more. They grabbed the same equipment in two more runs and in a third grabbed two additional M4s and a shotgun each. On their fourth trip they only grabbed ammo for the M$s and the shotguns. As they went back for more food, they saw infected beginning to spill into the armory itself.

One of them, a woman, ripped out the throat of the soldier who had been guarding the inside of the door. Several more began running at the collection of soldiers near the rear door among the ammunition and armor.

Reed and Fischer began retreating again as they fired with the other soldiers. All of a sudden, Cpl Reed yelled, "Anybody who doesn't want to die, out the back door NOW!" Reed then ran for the door, several soldiers in tow, Fischer the closest.

As the men exited the large building, Reed ran to the Humvee they had loaded with supplies and shut the rear cargo trunk and jumped into the driver's seat and started the vehicle. Several soldiers piled in, others heading for other vehicles. Cpl Fischer jumped into the passenger seat and three men piled into the back.

As the last one entered he yelled, "Drive, drive, DRIVE!" Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth a woman covered in blood impacted against the glass of the door.

Cpl Reed hit the gas and the Humvee rocketed away. Without looking back, Reed said to the other soldiers in the vehicle, "Okay everybody, we're heading out of the gates. We're going to find supplies and ammunition and maybe survivors, then we're going to find a nice little fortress and ride this thing out."

The other soldiers just nodded. Cpl Fischer leaned over to whisper into Reed's ear, "I hope you know what you're doing."

Reed just kept looking straight ahead and replied in a hushed voice, "So do I."


End file.
